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Surprise Billing Ban Compliance Date Weeks Away

The January 1 compliance date is just around the corner, yet key elements of the NSA are still missing. In July, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and Treasury, and the Office of Personnel Management issued the first interim final rule, or set of requirements, for the No Surprises Act (NSA) […]

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AAPC Knowledge Center

Here’s What Wise Officers Will Do Right Away

Step #1 – Hold an officers’ meeting right away: Get acquainted with one another. The most successful chapters have leaders who work as a team and communicate openly. Together, review the responsibilities and general expectations of each officer as outlined in the 2020 AAPC Local Chapter Handbook. Allow each person to fulfill his or her […]

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AAPC Knowledge Center

The Seattle Regional Conference is Just Weeks Away

We had a very successful networking session with our East coast members in New York and now we’re looking forward to having another with West coast members in Seattle. Regional conferences are unique; they cost a little less and because of their sizes, it’s a little easier to make connections and find members with like […]

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AAPC Knowledge Center

Keep Yourself Away From Medical Malpractice Ny

Suppose you are planning to get treated by the medical professionals available in New York then you need to be very careful because medical malpractice NY has spoiled the image of entire medical field. There are various patients who have become the victim of this act and they are not aware of their rights to drag the responsible person in to court so you must help those people by providing them proper knowledge. In some cases patients are bound to live the life of a handicap person because of the mere negligence of doctors and other medical professionals. Besides this medical malpractice NY leads to the death of millions of innocent patients. Moreover after committing this act they are not ready to admit it easily and in spite of that they make every possible effort to prove it a natural accident. It is not only happening in New York but doctors available across the world are also doing these blunders.

Apart from doctors there are other staff members also who are engaged in taking care of the patient so you can not blame doctors only. An act of medical malpractice NY can occur due to nurses, ward boys, cleaning staff of a hospital. You should not think that if you have consulted a specialist or a surgeon then you can not become a victim of medical malpractice NY because surgeons and specialists of New York have disappointed lot of patients from their treatments. There are certain points to be stressed upon while approaching a medical professional such as you need to enquire about his career details. Career details are concerned with the cases of medical professional which he has dealt so far and the result of these cases so that you can easily speculate his capabilities of treating a patient. You must consult a doctor who has already provided best treatment to your family members and friends so that you can build your trust upon his treatment.

If you are getting treated by the medical professionals of New York then beware as you can anytime become the victim of medical malpractice NY. It is the responsibility of patients also to consult the right medical professionals for their treatment because sometimes it is the patient who is independently responsible for the negligence in his treatment. Incase after considering all the guidelines you are not getting the experienced and talented professionals for your operation or surgery then you can surely take advice of the experts in medical field available online. There are various websites which are full of experts advice and details of medical professionals from where you can make a firm decision about the consultation of an appropriate doctor.

So you can easily draw a conclusion from the above information that medical malpractice NY is a blunder which is usually committed by the medical professionals engaged in taking care of patients. If you are ignoring these blunders then one or the other day you have to pay for it. Then do not take it lightly at all.

George Turner gives advice to clients who are looking for attorneys to handle injury related cases. To know more about the services of medical malpractice, medical malpractice NY, medical malpractice lawyer new York, medical malpractice lawyers new York, medical malpractice law firm, visit http://www.nbrlawfirm.com

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Stay Away From Medical Malpractice Nyc

As you all know that New York is a place which is equipped with various talented doctors and other medical professionals and that is the main reason why a large number of people keep on rushing towards this place to get better treatment. But when you come to know about the cases of medical malpractice NYC then the faith of the patient gets shatters down completely. Doctors usually commit mistake while doing surgery of a patient or they provide wrong medication process because of the wrong diagnosis made of the patient. Delay in surgery and diagnosis may also lead a patient to the stage of death or he may also have to live the life of a handicap person. Medical malpractice NYC is a curse to the whole society so this practice should be abolished worldwide.

There are some methods which should be adopted to achieve this goal as a patient should take second opinion from another doctor after diagnosing by the previous one in order to reduce the probability of occurrence of medical malpractice acts. Secondly you should always look in to it that you are keeping all documentation proofs with you to deteriorate the happening of these ignorant acts quite often. If a doctor assumes that he has committed only a small mistake through treating a patient with a wrong method and it will not cause a big harm to him then it is completely a misconception. Whether a mistake committed is small or big but a victim should take strict action against the irresponsible person so that he does not even dare to think about committing an act of medical malpractice NYC.

A victim should consult a talented lawyer who used to deal with such issues every now and then so that he can easily tackle with the case of medical malpractice NYC. It is not certain that if you are approaching a well qualified doctor then you will not have to face the situation of medical malpractice. It can happen with anybody anywhere irrespective of age, status and position of the patient. A lawyer can handle the case only if he is aware of the entire incident from the initial stage to the last and that is the duty of a victim to discuss all the things clearly in order to avoid the further discrepancies in the case. You can only fight for justice legally if your lawyer is capable enough to extract all the information and required proofs when required.

Not only New York but the entire society is curbed by ill effects of medical malpractice NYC so it is very important for everybody to come forward and make people aware about the consequences of such acts. It is an essence to make doctors realize for the blunder committed by them otherwise they will keep on repeating this every now and then. So it is advisble for all the patients to keep themselves away from such acts and adopt all the measures discussed above.

George Turner gives advice to clients who are looking for attorneys to handle injury related cases. To know more about the services of medical malpractice, medical malpractice NYC , medical malpractice lawyers new York, medical malpractice law firm, personal injury New York, medical malpractice New York visit www.nbrlawfirm.com

Stay away from medical malpractice New York

Generally people have faith on the treatment of doctors but when they come to know about such cases of medical malpractice New York then their trust seems to be broken. It is not necessary that if you are seeking a specialist for your treatment then there is no chance of medical malpractice act to be happened rather it can be happened to anybody at anytime. Any doctor would not want to go through such circumstances of getting sued by the victim to get compensation on behalf of the loss caused by him. In spite of that there is hardly any doctor who has not committed this medical malpractice act in their whole professional period.

When the patient realizes that there is something wrong happened with him due to the negligence of the doctor in facilitating proper medical care, then he can decide to sue the doctors and hospitals in the court. While filing litigation the concerned doctor is supposed to be informed about the action through a notice by the court. Doctors usually start to search for the patient records from where they can try to proclaim their innocence in front of the juries. They try to manipulate the fact by proving the incident a normal case of genuine complications that can occur in any type of case. The other aspect which they put in front of the judges is that this is a human nature to doubt on unnecessary grounds. Medical malpractice New York is becoming common day by day as you can find these types of cases occurring every day at a rapid rate.

Medical malpractice New York is an ignorant act committed by various doctors engaged in providing medical care to the patients. This act can sue the doctors to the court. To keep themselves safe the doctors usually alter the record so that they can be proved innocent in the court. Sometimes it becomes quite dangerous to commit such an act as it comes under a criminal charge to interfere in the proper investigation of the case. Nowadays it is not an easy task to hide the truth by altering the records as there are various advanced techniques to identify the culprit like forensic science plays a vital role in this regard. Forensic experts can make out the differences in the ink used, handwriting similarity, and spacing between the words, pressure indentation and word typed from which device is also considered to recognize the fact.

Despite of these technologies there is another method to find out the fact as doctors usually pass on one copy of the treatment given to other doctor and you can easily get it from there when required. This copy would not contain any changes made by the previous doctor to hide his mistake. It is advisable to hire the services of any professional medical malpractice lawyer who can handle your case in a way that can provide you with the fruit of victory. There are various cases of medical malpractice New York which are being filed every second in the court but only few of them goes for trial and rest of them are usually settled out of court.

George Turner gives advice to clients who are looking for attorneys to handle injury related cases. To know more about the services of medical malpractice, medical malpractice lawyer new york, medical malpractice lawyers new york, medical malpractice law firm, visit www.nbrlawfirm.com

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Is the 2-midnight rule going away and when will short-stay audits resume?

Is the 2-midnight rule going away and when will short-stay audits resume?

Learning objective

At the completion of this educational activity, the learner will be able to:

  • Identify updates to CMS’ 2-midnight rule and best practices for compliance.

 

Every couple months, it seems questions arise about the 2-midnight rule and there are rumors that it may be going away. Below are some questions with answers from our expert Ronald Hirsch, MD, FACP, CHCQM, vice president of the Regulations and Education Group at Accretive Health in Chicago, to clarify where things stand today with regard to the 2-midnight rule.

 

Q: I heard the 2-midnight rule is now gone based on changes to Medicare payment rates under the 2017 inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) final rule. Is this true, and if not, what changed?

 

A: No, this is not the case. The 2-midnight rule is still alive and kicking. What the FY 2017 IPPS final rule did is finalize two adjustments in addition to updating the annual rate for inpatient hospital payments.

"First, CMS is finalizing the last year of recoupment adjustments required by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA). Section 631 of ATRA requires CMS to recover $ 11 billion by FY 2017 to fully recoup documentation and coding overpayments related to the transition to the MS-DRGs that began in FY 2008," states the CMS Fact Sheet. "For FYs 2014, 2015, and 2016, CMS implemented a series of cumulative -0.8 percent adjustments. For FY 2017, CMS calculates that $ 5.05 billion of the $ 11 billion requirement remains to be addressed. Therefore, CMS is finalizing a -1.5 percent adjustment to complete the statutorily specified recoupment."

And the second part of the change, which seems to be causing the confusion, is CMS took action on a -0.2 percent adjustment it implemented in the FY 2014 IPPS final rule.

This adjustment was initially made to account for an estimated increase in Medicare spending due to the 2-midnight policy. "Specifically, in the FY 2014 IPPS final rule, CMS estimated that this policy would increase expenditures and accordingly made an adjustment of -0.2% to the payment rates," states the fact sheet.

While CMS thought this adjustment was reasonable at the time, a recent review led CMS to permanently remove this adjustment, "and its effects for FYs 2014, 2015, and 2016 by adjusting the 2017 payment rates. This will increase FY 2017 payments by approximately 0.8%," stated CMS.

Hirsch says this move is "purely about money." "They are leaving the 2-midnight rule itself completely intact," he says.

The bottom line: Pay attention to 2-midnight compliance and ensure your organization has good systems in place to support it.

 

Q: When are Beneficiary and Family Centered Care Quality Improvement Organizations (BFCC-QIO) short-stay reviews going to resume?

 

A: Back in May, CMS put a hold on short-stay inpatient audits related to the 2-midnight rule. That hold was lifted effective September 12, 2016, according to a FAQ published by CMS (http://ow.ly/DQxW304bCa6).

According to the FAQ, CMS decided to lift this temporary suspension for five reasons, which are as follows:

  1. BFCC-QIOs were successfully retrained on 2-midnight rule
  2. BFCC-QIOs finished a re-review of claims that were formally denied
  3. CMS "examined and validated the BFCC-QIOs peer review activities related to short-stay reviews"
  4. BFCC-QIOs reached out to providers on claims that were affected by the temporary suspension
  5. BFCC-QIOs started provider outreach and education on the 2-midnight rule

It appears that based on the five points, the temporary audit suspension accomplished its goal of helping BFCC-QIOs sort out the challenges they faced during the initial round of audits.

Prior to the suspension, hospitals complained about inconsistencies in the review process, which triggered the suspension. The BFCC-QIO audits began in October 2015, and hospitals reported a number of surprises including:

  • Auditors requested records as far back as May 2015 when many believed the audits would only look at records from 2015 forward
  • BFCC-QIOs missed deadlines, and provided audit results late
  • Failure by BFCC-QIOs to schedule timely education for providers

 

These problems made it difficult for hospitals to hit filing deadlines, and they were consequently reporting problems because they missed the window to appeal denied claims. Hospitals also didn’t have a chance to get education to understand what they were doing wrong to fix the problem.

There were also rumored problems related to benchmark admissions. Hospitals reported that BFCC-QIOs were routinely and in some cases inappropriately denying inpatient admissions when the patient spent one night as an outpatient in the emergency department or in observation services before he or she was admitted?even when the patient spent a second night in the hospital as an inpatient.

To prevent future problems, CMS said in its FAQ that it will continue to provide oversight for BFCC-QIO efforts by:

  • Reviewing a sample of completed claim reviews each month
  • Monitoring provider education calls
  • Responding to individual provider inquiries and concern. Providers may send questions to the CMS Open Door Forum Mailbox at [email protected].

 

CMS also said that BFCC-QIOs will continue tofollow the guidance called, "Reviewing Short-Stay Hospital Claims for Patient Status." To see a copy ofthe guidance, go to www.cms.gov/research-statistics- data-and-systems/monitoring-programs/medicare-ffs- compliance-programs/medical-review/inpatienthospitalreviews.html.   

The BFCC-QIOs will also be charged with providing provider education going forward. "The BFCC-QIOs were directed to use comprehensive outreach and communication approaches (i.e., website, newsletter, one-on-one training, and town hall type events) to continue to educate providers on when payment under Medicare Part A is appropriate under the 2-midnight policy," states the FAQ. "BFCC-QIOs are required to educate providers using quality improvement core principles that facilitate continuous learning and promote greater provider understanding of the appropriate application of the 2-midnight policy in accordance with the revisions in the CY 2016 OPPS Final Rule (CMS-1633-FC): www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-Fee-for-Service-Payment/HospitalOutpatientPPS/Hospital-Outpatient-Regulations-and-Notices-Items/CMS-1633-FC.html."

Now that audits have resumed, organizations should maintain a focus on 2-midnight compliance. Below are some tips Hirsch has recommended in the past, including:

  • Reviewing every short-stay admission?those between zero and one day?prior to billing.
  • Ensuring that every patient’s status is appropriate up front. Reviewing the chart of every patient that goes upstairs.
  • Using the physician advisor to check compliance on cases that are murky to ensure that they meet one of the exceptions under the 2-midnight rule. Changing cases that don’t meet an exception using condition code 44. If the problem isn’t discovered until after discharge, self-deny and rebill the claim.
  • Ensuring that the case managers and the physicians are up to date about any potential changes to the 2-midnight rule and how to comply.

 

HCPro.com – Case Management Monthly